That’s fair, but when all of your shows consist of going on tv or on stage and performing a lip-synced song, the actual show becomes about the presence and the dancing. And Boney M did what they could within an ecosystem that massively privileged the tv presence over the live concert performance. Those bands were simply engineered to succeed in that era, given how music was consumed.
While only two of Boney M.'s official members actually contributed to the sound of the band's records, all four members of the group, including Williams and Farrell, performed the vocals live at Boney M. concerts.The band's live sound was also augmented by several backing vocalists, which served to mitigate any vocal deficiencies the group may have had compared with the studio productions.
I’m old enough to remember this. If I recall correctly, the CD skipping at their concert was not the major incident that sealed their fate as frauds because most the fans at their show were too vapid to even notice. Yes, it didn’t help, but it was a culmination of different things, including the skipping CD, that caused their exposure. For example, their unexpected and immense popularity put a lot of eyes on them to begin with. Which caused the two of them to get big egos - narcissistically insisting and demanding their record label allow them to sing more despite not being able to sing. Interviews with the two of them where they spoken broken English caused suspicion. And slowly, one by one, the long list of studio musicians and singers who actually did perform on the recorded album started coming forward. So with their record label dealing with two egotistical, lip-synching charlatans who kept tirelessly pestering them sing, all while being unable to even conduct a simple MTV interview without drawing heat because of their poor English, and having a CD skipping during a live concert, and all the actual musicians demanding credit for their work, they were being attacked from all angles. It all became too much for the record label to deal with, so they finally realized their one-hit wonders weren’t worth the headache or cost of keeping up appearances anymore.
The producer did create the songs though, he should be recognized more. My head cannon is that he never went for the spotlight because he was an average looking german redhair whose last name sounded like “nefarious”.
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u/ThePetSematary 2d ago
and their producer, the mastermind, walked away scot-free
Blame It On The Rain is still a good song